10 G. G. Hubbard-GeographicProgress of Civilization.
Persia and later into India, in each country driving the native
races before them and occupying the most favored parts of the
land.
The geographic features of Persia and India are dissimilar,
affording an opportunity to notice the effect produced on the
same race by differences in the physical geography of the two
countries. Persia formerly included Afghanistan and Beloochis
tan, and was called the Iranian plateau. It is environed with
mountains, so that one-half the drainage is inland. Mountain
chains cross it in every direction; it is dry and hot in summer,
cold in winter, with great salt deserts and rich fertile valleys of
limited extent; it is the land of the rose and the nightingale.
The Persians are naturally brave, warlike, independent and
unconquered, but under a despotic government a part of the
people have lost much of their independence and have become
great traders. This despotism is, however, principally confined
to the cities and towns, for the larger proportion of the popula
tion are nomads, subject only to their chiefs, and remain free
and independent. The area of the Iranian plateau is about two
thirds that of India;' the population of the one is 13,000,000; of
the other, 287,000,000.
The vedas, hymns which the Aryans sang three thousand
years ago on the banks of the Indus in northern India, give us
our earliest knowledge of India. They show that when they
were written the Aryans were a people of robust rudeness and
manly freedom, in character entirely unlike the Hindus of to
day, more like the nomad Persians.
The Aryans found one of the richest countries in the world.
generally well watered and easily cultivated: in the north, a tem
perate and healthful climate, the region of the Himalayas and
their foot-hills; in northern-central India, the warm, rich valleys
of the Indus and Ganges. Further southward low mountains
cross the country from east to west, and from these mountains
rich plains with an equatorial climate extend to southern India
and Ceylon. The Aryans conquered India, driving the aborig
ines into the mountains and jungles and the Dravidians into the
southern parts of India, where they retain their habits and cus
toms. Though the same race conquered and settled Persia and
India, it would be difficult to find two nations now more unlike:
the Persians restless, strong, brave and independent; the Hindus
small in stature, weak in body, highly imaginative, with little